


What We Never Had

by Redwings



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Memories Lost, ill change as i go on but ye, ill tag more as it goes on, im planning, lots of fighting and angst, potential smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 09:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7613629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redwings/pseuds/Redwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solider 76 realizes Reaper is his old Gabriel, but not before he smacks his ex upside the head and accidentally ruins everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What We Never Had

**Author's Note:**

> Gabriel Reyes gets his too hard in the head after he realizes Solider 76 is Jack Morrisson, and now it's up to Dad Friend to fix it up again.

Cornfields reached beyond the horizon and kissed the saturated sunset with their billowing husks. The smell of wet dirt from the night before was still rich in the air, and the clouds hanging overhead said there’d likely be another. The farm chores were done, his parents in bed, the world resting.

 

John “Jack” Morrison wasn’t sure why he’d really considered leaving home. The call in his heart to be something more than some homeboy living cozily at home was something that tugged at his mind more often that not, these days.

 

His fingers dug into the dirt thoughtlessly, wondering if he could ever even forget what the soft ground would feel like, having lived in this place his entire life. Yet, he would have so many dreams about how he could be a part of this world’s greatness.

 

Dreams of something more.

 

Dreams of becoming part of something bigger than himself.

 

Jack never really wanted to up and leave his home, but to go out and spread his wings, so to say, was something any twenty-something craved.

 

What he didn’t expect was to fall in love again and again with his new life and lose it all in the exchange of a few bitter words.

 

 

But that was so many years ago, and the sweet smell of cornfields, the warmth of the sunset, the sound of the sleeping earth, the light of the scattered stars, was a peace he would never know again.

 

Before the fall of Overwatch, and before he was beneath literal tons of rubble, he was the happiest he had ever thought he could be. Sure, he and Gabe fought countless of times – on and off the training grounds – but Jack had never felt more complete than when he was with his comrade, and beloved.

 

Soon, all Jack missed was that sweet and musky scent of sweat and gunpowder, the warmth of being held in those massive arms, the sound of that attractive-as-hell voice, and meeting those star-speckled eyes with his own.

 

Gabriel’s roughness and fierceness in the battle fit like a puzzle with Jack’s calmness and calculative strategies; not to say that either of them lacked the strength and wit the other signified best. They were leaders for a reason.

 

When everything seemed so perfect, nothing could be lost faster.

 

But Soldier 76 wasn’t Jack Morrison anymore. He wasn’t some farm boy with eyes wider than the world, in love with his closest comrade, heartbroken when his career was forced precedence before his feelings. Soldier 76 was a soldier born of war and loss, made of steel and iron before all else. He knew nothing but the smell of smoke, the warmth of fire and blood, the sound of screams and gunfire, the light of the earth shattering before his partially blinded eyes.

 

He was the weapon his mother feared he’d become by joining the military.

 

It was nights like these when he regretted telling Lena to leave him alone. Solider 76 alone with his thoughts always became the concoction for a very long, very rough night. He’d give nearly anything to be attacked by that mercenary, by Talon, by anyone. He needed something to get his mind out of-

 

“Scared of the dark?”

 

The voice sliced through the night before the sounds of gunfire shattered it all away. Heat spilt through Jack’s side instantly, throwing him off the roof he was once comfortably perched at.

 

His side ricocheted off the neighboring wall, blood trailing his motions. He grunted as he hit the dusty floor, rolling out of the way as Reaper leapt down from the rooftops, laughing that demonic laugh. Asshole caught him off guard. Jack wouldn’t let him get the upper hand.

 

Jack found temporary safety from around the corner, his visor flashing off ratings and calculations of how fast his new target was approaching. With just enough time to whip out his gun, Jack turned the corner and sent a sharp kick to Reaper’s stomach, blocked just in time with one of those gaudy shotguns.

 

Blows were blocked, attacks were dodged, and some lucky punches were met with a satisfying crack. Everything was exchanged with the most calculated accuracy.

 

“You’re dead meat!” Reaper screamed, jumping several feet back and firing off gunshots with grating laughter.

 

76 dodged as much as he could, boiling pain shooting from his shoulder where Reaper got lucky. He fired back and the rain of bullets against him hesitated with a growl of pain. Morrison would have to hope that wherever he hit of Reaper was enough to put him down long enough for 76 to relocate.

 

But soon enough, one of those fast ass bullets skimmed through half of 76’s visor before he rolled away, shaving against the side of his head and leaving a burning slice of pain near his eye. His eyesight was shit without his visor, dammit! He could only see blobs of color with his normal vision after the Switzerland incident, so he’d have to rely on his left eye with what remained of his malfunctioning visor.

 

With half of his face now exposed, he’d have to take this fight more seriously. No amount of entertainment was worth the stitches this would add up to be.

 

“This is where it all ends! Here and now! I’m finished with you!!” Reaper bellowed, his swings becoming less calculated as the more smoke trailed from his side. He was bleeding out and was desperate to make these final moments of battle count. Which, according to Soldier 76, wouldn’t amount up to much.

 

“Good luck with that after I send you six feet under,” Soldier 76 shot back. As he got back into the rhythm of fighting, getting close to Reaper taking advantage of his lack of close combat experience, 76’s actions only seemed spurred.

 

Or it was because Reaper was on the defensive side, his movements hesitating and suddenly rather slow.

 

A clawed hand came Jack’s way from his blind eye’s side, reaching near his face but not with half the speed of what it could have been. If this was Reaper’s way of taunting then it was a no go.

 

Just in time, 76 kicked up his gun back into his hands, bringing it up as fast as a crack of lighting, fast enough to cut off whatever it was that Reaper said.

 

“Ja-“ The growled voice of the shadowed man was severed with the swinging end of Jack’s rifle to the side of his head. That tacky skull mask cracked as Reaper’s head shot to the side, hands still raised as his feet toppled over.

 

The mercenary fell like a doll. He lay spread-eagle and heavily like he embraced the death he stood for – as edgy as that seemed – and was still bleeding out with that choking smoke and black blood. Solider 76 stepped through the dark puddles of his enemy’s remains, loading his gun for the final blow as a groan from below resounded.

 

The only thing Jack will miss now is how Talon would react. Maybe they’ll cough up another mercenary to throw his way to take him out. He’d keep sending them back in body bags, of course, but at least he had something to look forward to in this life not worth living.

 

There was no Overwatch to return to, no home he’d choose to waste away in, no life he remembered where there was any room left for him. There was no place to call home, to rest. Reaper was perhaps the only entertainment on the battlefield that could match his own skills. Whoever was behind the mask had serious militaristic training.

 

But at least he took out this gnat of his life, he knew, as he nudged the arm of the fallen mercenary. Curiosity got the best of him, as it usually had. No Talon agents were being picked up on his radar, and no ticking of bombs near either. He was safe enough to see who the sorry sucker was that picked up Talon’s reward for 76’s head.

 

Soldier 76 kicked away the rest of the skull mask, his visor flickering at the new data it automatically saved for easy facial-recognition if he were to come across this face again. Helpful, but not in cases like these.

 

He blinked away the numbers that covered his vision from seeing his fallen foe. And what a sight this poor jackass was; scars all over a pained face, black smoke bleeding from where his skin was torn from their battle, and…

 

It was a coincidence. There were plenty of people who had similar features, similar frowns and face lines and hair color and little lip scars and scruff led beards and…

 

“Gabe… Gabe?”

 

A ghost. It had to be some trick. Talon was the best at mind games; this had to be one of them…

 

But Soldier 76 fell to his knees, prying away the remains of the mask as a low grumble from Gabriel hummed out. That was the same tone… The same grumble that’d wake Jack from a deep sleep, the same sound that’d silence a cafeteria riot, the same sound that’d join a pout of being proven wrong…

 

A shaky hand placed itself over the scarred cheek, a heartbeat pounding in his head, the world spinning all over again.

 

Jack was back there, back in that explosion, holding a dead Gabriel Reyes in his arms and screaming for help, wasting time while doing so. Soldier 76’s fingers dug into bloodied arms as Jack Morrison’s had so long ago. Tears he hadn’t known he’d made spilled over his face, and his heart was weak with newfound confusion, something equally as painful as it was back then.

 

This man didn’t smell of hearth and strength, but of rotting skin, fire, ash, and death in every which way. But Death itself wears a thousand faces, and it couldn’t take Gabriel away again. There was no mistaking it… There was no way this could be a lie, or just in his head…

 

Jack really left Gabe behind. His worst nightmares and best hopes were complete in this very moment.

 

Why he was in so much pain was something he couldn’t find words for yet.

 

“Gabe, this… This has to be you…” Even speaking quietly and in a broken voice was far too loud. He held his fallen enemy in his arms like Gabe was supposed to answer all of his questions and mend his weak heart. This entire time, Reaper was… Did he know? This whole time, did Gabe know?

 

With reason out the window along every thought of how this could very well be a trap, Jack lifted Reaper’s – no, Gabe’s – limp and heavy body in his arms.

 

“I won’t lose you again.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this fic planned for a while and got around to writing it out finally;;
> 
> I love feedback!! Please let me know how I'm doing ^^; my tumblr is dies-first, hmu and lets talk about these nerds


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